A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



to Gabriel's son and heir Bartholomew in 1573. 



Gabriel Hesketh died 21 November, 1573, 'and his 



holding is described in the subsequent inquisition as 



four messuages, land, &c. held 



of Henry Starkie of Aughton, 



by a rent of 3/. xd. ; other 



land in Aughton held of James 



Scarisbrick by a rent of 6s. id. ; 



lands, &c. in Uplitherland held 



of the queen in socage by a 



rent of \s. ^d. Bartholomew 



Hesketh was his son and heir, 



and twenty-nine years of age.* 



Soon after his father's death 

 Bartholomew Hesketh was in- 



volved in disputes with his t ntiuJ gala tbra 

 stepmother Elizabeth * and half- garbs or. 

 sisters. 4 Much more serious 



trouble fell upon the family through their adherence 

 to the Roman Catholic religion. Among those who 

 attended the ministrations of a Cistercian monk 

 (Dominic Halsall) at North Meols Hall in 1577 were 

 Mr. Bartholomew Hesketh of Aughton and his second 

 wife Margaret, 5 daughter of a noteworthy victim of 

 the persecution Sir John Southworth. Mrs. Hes- 

 keth was at this time returned by the bishop of 

 Chester as 'a busy recusant.' She acted so 

 undisguisedly that in 1584 Walsingham wrote 

 to the bishop of Chester touching her ' bad 

 disposition,' and ' how she did much hurt in being at 

 liberty to go (as she used to do) where she would 

 among recusants and like persons.' 6 She was accord- 



ingly arrested at Meols Hall and confined in the New 

 Fleet in Salford. The husband, though returned in 

 159035 'in some degree of conformity,' ' was reported 

 about the same time for having ' kept for sundry years 

 now together one Gabriel Shaw to be his school- 

 master, which Shaw is most ) malicious against true- 

 hearted subjects.' 8 



Bartholomew Hesketh died in February, 1600, 

 and was succeeded by his son Gabriel, 9 who died, 

 outlawed, about the end of 1615. His widow Jane 

 renounced executorship of his will on 8 December, 

 and at an inquiry made in the following March an 

 account was taken of his goods, which were seized to 

 the king's use. 10 Gabriel's son Bartholomew was his 

 heir, being about fifteen years of age." In the civil 

 war Bartholomew Hesketh ls escaped any penalties 

 until, upon some charge of 'delinquency,' his estate 

 was seized at the beginning of 1652." 



Gabriel Hesketh, who succeeded to the manor and 

 other estates of his father about 1672, quickly fell 

 into financial difficulties. He mortgaged or sold his 

 estate to his younger brother Alexander, who seems 

 to have taken up his residence at Aughton and kept 

 the place in repair. 14 In 1682 Gabriel demanded the 

 estate from his brother, offering 200, on the 

 allegation that he had merely mortgaged it, and had 

 a right to redeem it ; but Alexander contended that 

 the bargain was absolute, and retained the whole." 

 He does not seem to have prospered. 16 In 1718 

 he and his son Thomas joined in the sale of the hall 

 and demesne of Aughton and all other their lands in 

 Uplitherland and Aughton to John Plumbe of Waver- 



294 



